More USL Discipline Problems – What’s Going On In Canada?

2009 July 22

by Brian Quarstad

Wesley Charles (left) and Charles Gbeke (right) are held apart by teammates in scuffle during a Vancouver v Miami FC game earlier in the season

While Sandro Grande was released this week from the Montreal Impact for violence displayed against his own player, we now have word that Wesley Charles of the Vancouver Whitecaps has also been released by his club, the Vancouver Whitecaps. What is going on up in Canada? As a writer on a discussion board stated, it must be in the water because it’s sure not in the beer.

Charles had an incident earlier in the season as mentioned here at IMS with video of the scuffle. At the time, he was fined by the team and suspended by the league and Vancouver. In that incident, Charles had gotten into a confrontation with Charles Gbeke. Gbeke and Charles were both yellow carded and Gbeke was eventually red carded out of the game for bad behavior along the sideline after being subbed out late in the game.

The Province is reporting that the two were battling for the ball during a possession drill when they came nose-to-nose. Nasty words flew and head coach Teitur Thordarson sent Charles for an early shower. Parke accused Charles of throwing an elbow and head-butting him.

“It’s the second incident between Wesley and a teammate in just over a month,” Whitecaps director of professional teams Greg Anderson said Tuesday evening. “After the Gbeke-Charles incident both were warned that if that type of thing happened again that we’d have to take serious action.”

Thordarson wasn’t available for comment Tuesday night, but he expressed his displeasure after practice.

“I’m extremely unhappy with his behavior,” the coach said after an otherwise upbeat session. “I think I am pretty calm, but when I feel it’s too much, it’s too much.”

Charles, 33, joined the Whitecaps midway through last season and was a key cog in their USL-1 title run. The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines international, who spent 11 seasons playing in the League of Ireland, was in his club option year with the Whitecaps.

Twice in the early part of this season Charles was granted leave to deal with personal family matters in Ireland. He was unavailable for comment Tuesday night, but after the fight with Gbeke he denied that his personal issues were affecting his mood.

Thordarson loves to talk up a player’s personality as much as his skill, so the fact Charles was vice-captain tells you what the coach thought of him.

But Thordarson admitted Tuesday that he felt Charles had been a different person this season.